diff --git a/grub-core/lib/progress.c b/grub-core/lib/progress.c
index 95a4a6281..4b7cbbca6 100644
--- a/grub-core/lib/progress.c
+++ b/grub-core/lib/progress.c
@@ -38,11 +38,17 @@ grub_file_progress_hook_real (grub_disk_addr_t sector __attribute__ ((unused)),
   grub_uint64_t now;
   static grub_uint64_t last_progress_update_time;
   grub_file_t file = data;
+  const char *e;
   file->progress_offset += length;
 
   if (call_depth)
     return;
 
+  e = grub_env_get ("enable_progress_indicator");
+  if (e && e[0] == '0') {
+    return;
+  }
+
   call_depth = 1;
   now = grub_get_time_ms ();
 
diff --git a/tests/util/grub-shell.in b/tests/util/grub-shell.in
index 6d2b1327e..31a1f294d 100644
--- a/tests/util/grub-shell.in
+++ b/tests/util/grub-shell.in
@@ -289,6 +289,8 @@ fi
 cfgfile=`mktemp "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/tmp.XXXXXXXXXX"` || exit 1
 cat <<EOF >${cfgfile}
 grubshell=yes
+enable_progress_indicator=0
+export enable_progress_indicator
 EOF